Marketing Automation – How much is too much?

I love marketing automation

.

I don’t believe it to be impersonal, cold or heartless. And I certainly don’t buy into the smoke that is being blown around the need to “engage” and “join the conversation” which goes contrary to automation. Most of the serious people that I know that have been in business for awhile just laugh when those phrases are mentioned. The usual response is “Oh… you mean do my job?”.

I believe that in the internet world there is so much going on that automation is essential for the small to medium business to stay afloat and compete. Over the years I’ve used various levels of marketing automation to share my messages. I’ve received comments from the lovers and haters so I constantly re-balance how much marketing automation I use so I can keep my friends yet still have a legitimate voice on the internet. But depending on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole you can automate the majority of your business online.

I have not dabbled in most of these marketing automation techniques but I keep up on what can be done. Some of these get into the dark art of “Black Hat” internet marketing. Most of these items are considered taboo by me and several others. But the people using these are able to get their message out, get found, generate interest, build a following, and generate recurring revenue easier than those not using these tools.

Marketing automation (when done correctly) can contribute and support your one-on-one networking and relationship building. If you have not done so and are finding online marketing a daunting task that you are having trouble keeping up, considering dabbling in the grey area of some of the automation tools I have mentions.